Academic literature on the topic 'UK Independence Party'

This article aims to further our understanding of the nature of the UK Independence Party. Our approach differs from much of the existing literature on party families, by analysing public attitudes towards the UK Independence Party in comparison with other parties. Multidimensional unfolding is utilised to map UK Independence Party’s place in the British party system, Tobit regressions are employed to compare UK Independence Party’s support base with that of the British National Party and the Conservatives and, finally, latent class analysis is used to assess the heterogeneity in UK Independence Party’s support base. The conclusion is that, with increasing success, the UK Independence Party has established itself as the only viable electoral option for British extreme right voters while also making serious inroads into more traditional conservative circles, who are Eurosceptic but not extreme. This bridging position between the mainstream and the extreme makes the UK Independence Party distinctive from other British parties and has parallels with the positions of anti-establishment, European Union sceptical and immigration-critical parties elsewhere in Europe.

Social movement scholars have recently turned their attention to the interactions between political parties and social movements, but little is known about how social media have impacted these relationships, despite widespread adoption of these technologies. We present a case study of the relationship between Britain First, a far-right anti-Muslim social movement, and the U.K. Independence Party, the Eurosceptic political party that spearheaded the Brexit campaign. The movement appeared marginal in the press but it dominated social media, using this presence to support to the party. We examine the dynamics of the relationship between these groups from 2013 until 2017, drawing upon data from social media, newspapers, and other online sources, and focusing on interactions between elites and rank-and-file supporters. Our findings illustrate how far-right groups have used new technologies to generate an unprecedented amount of popular support and to attempt to influence the political mainstream.

The number of non-EU students entering UK higher education has fallen for the first time for many year, especially students from South Asia. The UK government is under pressure from the neo-nationalist UK independence Party to reduce all forms of migration and international education has been caught by this.

Euroscepticism is considered as a stream of thoughts whch is typical of the EU distrust or of the European integration and its goals as such. The most common objections to joining the integration proces are loss of national sovereignty, not paying enough attention to national interests or too strict policy unification that does not allow for national particularities. This master thesis will focus on euroscepticism as a concept, il will analyze its ideological roots and the most frequent arguments in favour of this concept. Furthermore, it will analyze various classifications of euroscepticism as well as its potential to be called a new cleavage or even ideology as I suggest that there is no widely-accepted definition. Great Britain - a representative of traditionally very sceptical approach towards European integration project has been chosen as a model case. In this case study firstly, the development of potential eurosceptical thinking within the Conservative Party and the Labour Party will be explored. More importantly, it will concentrate on the (in)consistency of their European policies in time, analysis of their attitudes in the 21st century and finally it will try to derive the future development of their possible eurosceptical opinions from their current manifestos and public speeches. The...

AbstractWartime can create significant changes in people and institutions. New opportunities are envisaged. Australian scientists imagined many new scientific projects, and they also dreamed of improvements to society and culture to which science might contribute. Many people emerged from wartime with significant, passionate commitments to building a better future. As Schedvin (1987, p. 334) wrote of the immediate post-war period:These general remarks were certainly true of most of those who worked on radar during the war and became part of radio astronomy in the post-war decades. The importance of building capacity in Australian science—independent of the UK, and able to thrive nationally—was a priority for many. At the same time, the importance of developing scientific internationalism, which often seemed like the obverse of the populist authoritarianism that had underpinned the dreadful brutality of WWII, was also keenly felt.

The chapter explains the emerging concept of a property-owning democracy. Encouraging home ownership, Conservatives argued, increased ‘independence of character, self-reliance, initiative, and the habit of saving and the acceptance of responsibility’. The Conservative government of 1951 granted local authorities powers to sell council houses to their tenants. Conservatives portrayed the Labour Party as hostile to home ownership. However, Labour revisionists encouraged colleagues to take the concept of a property-owning democracy seriously as part of a strategy to refresh their egalitarian agenda. In similar vein, Anthony Crosland argued that the concept was a ‘socialist rather than a conservative ideal’ as long as property was ‘well distributed’. Thus, as Britain became more affluent, the central debate on housing shifted from one centred on which government built the most houses to which party would offer homeowners the best deal, with a focus on the terms of mortgage lending.

The chapter explores how forms of nationalism have interacted with Brexit, focusing primarily on the Scottish Nationalists (SNP), UK Independence Party (UKIP) and the Brexit Party. The chapter outlines how the SNP opposed a hard Brexit and UKIP and the Brexit Party militantly agitated for such an outcome. Scottish nationalists believed a hard Brexit would inevitably revive support for independence but sought to avoid a hard Brexit by advocating that Scotland should retain close links or even membership of the EU and campaigned for a more cosmopolitan and egalitarian vision of the future through a form of civic nationalism. In contrast UKIP and the Brexit Party through forms of exclusionary nationalism advocated for a Britain free from the restraints of EU regulation and free to limit migration. A vision for the future that some would argue is nativist and monocultural. Key personalities in the discussion include Nicola Sturgeon and Nigel Farage

The epilogue pulls back from the study presented to place it in the context of general patterns of national identity and recent and on going constitutional change in the UK. It explores how this case study relates to recent political events that have happened since the time of fieldwork, including the Scottish Independence Referendum of 2014, the UK Brexit Referendum of 2016, and the changing compositions of party systems in Scotland and the UK as a whole. It suggests that these events, like the formation of HBOS and its crisis, reflect deep and rapid economic, political and social changes, and illustrate the human struggle to make sense of and act towards an often imponderable future.

Ever since devolution to Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, one proposed answer to the English Question has been to create symmetry by establishing an English Parliament. This has been widely seen as a fringe proposal—with many arguing that England is too big and is already well represented by what has long been its Parliament, that is, Westminster. But in recent years, interest in an English Parliament has grown. The idea has its own campaign group and has gained support from UK Independence Party (UKIP) and some in the Conservative and Labour Parties. This chapter explores the history of the English Parliament idea, examines two competing visions of a English Parliament—the ‘separately elected’ and ‘dual mandate’ models—and considers a range of largely unexplored questions about what an English Parliament would look like and what implications it would have for Westminster and for the territorial stability of the UK.

This chapter considers arrogance claims lodged by members of the UK Independence Party, against the backdrop of Britain’s “Brexit” referendum to leave the European Union (EU). Many UKIP respondents see EU institutions as inappropriately treating national communities as not authorized to set policy in line with their own distinctive national priorities. And, they argue that EU free movement rules inappropriately impose a more cosmopolitan vision of membership on national communities—especially when prospective members such as Turkey are a “poor fit” with the British nation. Some Turkish respondents challenge such poor fit claims. Further challenges are raised to democratic theory arguments that give strong emphasis to national belonging. Overall, it is shown, claims for the moral and empirical distinctiveness of nations are difficult to sustain, and thus so are nationalist objections to democracy beyond the nation-state.

During 2013, there was little French media interest in the Scottish referendum, though by 2014 some coverage was evident in both press and broadcast output, though interest still appeared low. Coverage spiked after the publication of a Yes lead poll in early September 2014, from about 7 September until 19 September, a few days after the vote. But the general lesson from France was that while French regional nationalists in the Basque country, in Brittany, and Corsica, reacted supportively over the referendum, as did the equivalent of the French Green Party, Europe Écologie Les Verts, the great majority of French politicians were dismissive of claims for Scottish independence. There was a tendency to see such claims as selfish or anti-European, while support for the Union (the UK) was frequent. The overall sense was that France did not really engage with the Scottish referendum.

This chapter first offers narratives introducing actors in the book’s major case studies. In India, these include members of the National Campaign on Dalit Human Rights, which has sought to enlist global allies to press the Indian government for stronger action against caste discrimination, and its critics in the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party. The right-wing populist UK Independence Party’s aims for British secession from the European Union are highlighted, as are its claims that the prospect of European Union accession for predominantly Muslim Turkey is a chief reason why Britain should leave. The Turkish case is introduced via street scenes of activists confronting police amid the country’s rising authoritarianism. Then the chapter outlines the book’s major claims for how a robust institutional cosmopolitanism can be shown to orient to political humility rather than arrogance. Variants of cosmopolitanism are discussed, and the book’s argument is previewed by chapter.

This chapter shows that there is an inevitable asymmetry in the very nature and character of Scottish and English nationalism. In particular, it tries to examine the nature of unionism and nationalism in Scotland and England and the prospects for the union. Minority nationalism is the nationalism of politically subordinate groups that seek statehood. The chapter first explores three different aspects of nationalism, namely emotional attachments to Britain, perceptions of conflicts of interest between England and Scotland and constitutional preferences. It gets very different impressions of relations between England and Scotland depending on whether constitutional preferences, affective attachments or perceptions of national interest are considered. The data indicate that, whereas amongst older respondents higher education was linked with unionism, amongst the young it was accompanied by disengagement. The character and behaviour of unionists, nationalists, potential nationalists and disengaged post-nationalists, and the implications for relations between the two countries are elaborated. It is suspected that parties like the Referendum Party in 2001 and currently the UK Independence Party are the most likely to harness the potential for English nationalism and to direct it against Europe rather than against Scotland.

Recently it has been shown that in human plasma two types of UK-related proteins occur: Type I, plasma UK, with UK-related antigenic determinants directly accessible to anti-UK antibodies and Type II with UK-related antigenic determinants which become accessible only after SDS treatment and separation of polypeptides on PAGE. In this study we compared the molecular and enzymic properties of the two types in: 1. plasma activated by dextran sulphate (DXS) euglobulin precipitation, 2. plasma that was not activated and 3. plasma deficient in F XII, depleted in PKK and subsequently activated by DXS. ACA 34 gel chromatography, SDS PAGE, fibrin underlay zymography and immunoblotting were used. Results:Conclusions: 1. The UK-related subunits of T1 and TII are active when cleaved, but relatively inactive in the single-chain form. 2. The presence of F XII and PKK is indispensable for activation of TII, but not for that of TI; TII contributes to the F Xll-de-pendent plasminogen activator activity reported earlier, TI to the F Xll-independent part. 3. Activation of TI by DXS with no F XII and PKK present impairs the formation of the 150,000 form. 4. The specific activity of TII is rather low, but its concentration in plasma (not shown) is at least ten times that of TI.

This paper introduces the Instrumentation and Control (I&C) system for the proposed UK Advanced Boiling Water Reactor (UK ABWR) offered by Hitachi-GE Nuclear Energy, Ltd (Hitachi-GE). Hitachi-GE has been progressing the UK Generic Design Assessment (GDA) licensing process over the last 3 years. This is the process through which the Office for Nuclear Regulations (ONR) assesses the UK ABWR for suitability from a nuclear safety, security, environmental protection and waste management perspective and it is the first step towards proceeding with the construction phase in the UK. ONR’s regulatory expectations setting out relevant good practice are described in the Safety Assessment principles (SAPs), which are considered into the I&C design for UK ABWR. In addition, it has also been designed to take into account relevant good practices and regulations. In accordance with expectations derived from SAPs, the UK ABWR I&C systems are categorized and classified as required by IEC 61513 and IEC 61226. In addition, the overall I&C architecture, including all associated Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs), abides by the principles independence and diversity of safety measures, segregation and separation of the protection and control systems. As a result, the UK ABWR I&C architecture is composed of major eight sub-systems. The eight sub-systems are: -Safety System Logic and Control system (SSLC) -Hardwired Backup System (HWBS) -Safety Auxiliary Control System (SACS) -Plant Control System (PCntlS) -Reactor/Turbine Auxiliary Control System (RTACS) -Plant Computer System (PCS) -Severe Accident Control and Instrumentation system (SA C&I) -Other dedicated C&I systems. The features for each sub-system such as redundancy of safety train or segregation among divisions are specified so that each sub-system will achieve its reliability as well as increase availability. While in the Japanese ABWR safety I&C system, the main protection system (SSLC), is microprocessor-based from the decades of successful operating experience in the past BWR, to meet the UK regulatory regime expectation on diversity between Class 1 platform and non-Class 1 platform, the SSLC (Class 1) for the UK ABWR is by Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA). This system is currently under development and complies with IEC 62556. Its safety integrity level is planned to be SIL 3 (as a single division) and SIL 4 (as a four division system) as defined in IEC 61508. The HMIs which constitute an integral part of the I&C systems are also designed to comply with the I&C architecture regarding their categorization and classification with consideration of Human Factors (HF) modern methods taken into accounts.

In 1997 Nirex failed to obtain planning permission to build an underground laboratory (Rock Characterisation Facility) near the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, North-West England. This stopped the UK’s deep disposal programme. Since then there has been much discussion on how the UK should take the issue of long-term radioactive waste management forward. As part of its contribution to the ongoing debate, Nirex needed to reassess how its role in finding a long-term solution could be better played given its history. It has been suggested that the processes required to deal with such a contentious issue, the conduct of individuals and the structural relationships between organisations, all need to change if any progress is to be made. Specifically, one of the difficulties of the past was the lack of a mechanism to allow all stakeholders and the public to clearly see what had been decided and for what reasons. It is suggested that central to these changes needs to be a strong ethical framework based on transparency. This paper will provide an overview of the Nirex Transparency Policy, its operation and some observations of putting it into practice. As a method of ensuring that Nirex does not get complacent about this important aspect of their work, it established an Independent Transparency Review Panel. As part of this panel’s remit they conduct an annual review of the operation of Nirex’s Transparency Policy. Some conclusions and recommendations of operating such a policy will be discussed as will the implications of forthcoming legislation.

This paper provides an overview of the current status of radioactive waste management in the UK from the point of view of Nirex, the organisation responsible for providing safe, environmentally sound and publicly acceptable options for the long-term management of radioactive materials. Essentially, it argues that: • the waste exists and must be dealt with in an ethical manner; • legitimacy is the key to public acceptance of any attempt to solve the waste issue; and • credible options and a new political will allow, and indeed, compel this generation to deal with it. In doing this, the paper takes account of a number of recent announcements and ongoing developments in the UK nuclear industry, in particular: • the recent announcement that Nirex is to be made independent of industry; • the Department of Environment, Food and Rural Affairs and Devolved Administrations’ Managing Radioactive Waste Safely consultation exercise; • the creation of the Committee on Radioactive Waste Management to oversee the consultation; • the creation of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to manage the civil nuclear site clean-up programme; • proposals for improved regulation of Intermediate Level Waste conditioning and packaging; and • proposals by the European Commission for a new radioactive waste Directive. These institutional and policy changes amount to an evolution of the back-end of the fuel cycle that represents the most radical transformation in the UK nuclear industry for many years. In a large part, this is a transformation made necessary by past failures in trying to impose a solution on the general public. Therefore, in order for these changes to result in a successful long-term radioactive waste management programme, it is necessary to pay as much attention to political and social concerns as scientific and technical ones. Primarily it is crucial that all parties involved act in an open and transparent manner so that the decisions made achieve a high degree of legitimacy and thus public acceptance. Crucially too, the problem must be framed in the correct term — that the waste exists irrespective of the future of nuclear power and that this is an issue that must be addressed now. Thus there is a legitimacy of purpose and scope in moving forward that addresses the ethical imperative of this generation dealing with the waste. Put together with the action the government is taking to create the necessary institutional framework, Nirex believes that for the first time in a generation the UK has the building blocks in place to find a publicly acceptable, long-term solution for radioactive waste.

United Kingdom Nirex Limited (Nirex) is responsible for providing the UK with environmentally-sound and publicly-acceptable options for the long-term management of radioactive materials generated by the Nation’s commercial, medical, research and defence activities. An important part of Nirex’s responsibilities in developing these options is to build acceptance of its concepts through effective dialogue and engagement with a wide range of stakeholders. One of the options developed by Nirex for the long-term isolation of intermediate-level and some low-level from the accessible environment is to place these wastes in a deep underground repository, excavated in stable rock formations. The repository would remain accessible to allow future generations to have the choice of continuing to store the waste, or to dispose of the wastes by sealing and closing the repository. In conducting the scientific and technical research on this phased disposal concept, Nirex wanted its work programmes to take account of any public concerns with regard to radioactive waste and its management and proposed to develop its understanding of such concerns through public engagement. In October 2001, Nirex engaged an independent organisation to conduct a series of focus group discussions. Focus group meetings were arranged in 4 locations across the UK, selecting varying groups in terms of age, lifestage and socio-economic circumstances in order to engage a broad cross-section of the UK population. Each group attended two, 2-hour sessions on successive evenings. The first session was a general discussion of the issues of nuclear energy and radioactive waste. The second session focused on the more specific detail of the Nirex Phased Disposal Concept. Explanatory material was given to participants at each session. The work has provided some very useful information on issues, which the focus groups considered significant. The groups were able, in the short time available, to grasp many important issues and to provide their views across a range of technical areas. This work has helped Nirex to better understand ways of engaging the public in technical issues and to appreciate some of the key areas and concerns on the more technical areas associated with phased disposal. Several technical queries were identified, which the facilitators were unable to answer during the focus group discussions — Nirex has subsequently provided answers to these questions and made these available on the Nirex Bibliography. This paper describes the approach taken for the focus groups and outlines key findings from the work and some implications for Nirex in communicating technical issues to the public.

A Different Approach to the Skills and Resource Shortage The Nuclear Industry has for many years been concerned about a skills and resource shortage. This has been due to a poor perception of the industry by those on the outside, highly competitive industries vying for the same resource pool, a steep retirement curve for highly qualified staff and a lack of graduates entering industry. Here in the UK the creation of the National Skill Academy for Nuclear (NSAN) has put in place a framework to record skills and look to accredit the training providers in the nuclear industry to ensure that the correct skills for the future are available. This has gone some way to solving the skills problem and developing a well recognised accredited system but what about resource — where are the additional qualified resources going to be found? Part of the Solution – A Resource Exchange. How do we solve the skills shortage? We come together as an industry and share the available resource through a collaborative resource exchange. It has been done before in the IT industry when rates for specialists hit £1500 per day and recruitment agencies were charging extortionate fees for providing temporary resource. ReTek Consulting have developed the ReTek Resource Exchange to provide a neutral collaborative platform across the supply chain; from large scale infrastructure companies and joint venture platforms through to small companies and independent consultants. Using the ReTek Exchange permanent staff are made available to work for others during periods of underutilisation. Links with similar highly regulated industries enable further management of peaks and troughs and a growth in experienced nuclear professionals through focused training and development. The Benefits of the ReTek Exchange are: • Increased utilisation of your current workforce. • Shared cost of permanent staff. • Speedy access to staff available in your region. • Reduced need for contract or agency staff. • Access to wider skills & experience. • Retention of key staff through personal development. • Knowledge and experience transfer. Now is the time in the industry to make the most of the available resource and work together to ensure the required growth through training and development of all workers. The infrastructure required to make this resource exchange possible is available and proven many times. This paper will talk through the story of the development of the ReTek Exchange in the UK and how the same system can be used elsewhere in the world.

English is one of the most spoken languages in the world. A global language communication is inherent in him. This language is also distinguished by a significant diversity of dialects and speech. It appeared in the early Middle Ages as the spoken language of the Anglo-Saxons. The formation of the British Empire and its expansion led to the widespread English language in Asia, Africa, North America and Australia. As a result, the Metropolitan language became the main communication language in the English colonies, and after independence it became State (USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand) and official (India, Nigeria, Singapore). Being one of the 6 Official Languages of the UN, it is studied as a foreign language in educational institutions of many countries in the modern time [1, 2, s. 12-14]. Despite the dozens of varieties of English, the American (American English) version, which appeared on the territory of the United States, is one of the most widespread. More than 80 per cent of the population in this country knows the American version of the British language as its native language. Although the American version of the British language is not defined as the official language in the US Federal Constitution, it acts with features and standards reinforced in the lexical sphere, the media and the education system. The growing political and economic power of the United States after World War II also had a significant impact on the expansion of the American version of the British language [3]. Currently, this language version has become one of the main topics of scientific research in the field of linguistics, philology and other similar spheres. It should also be emphasized that the American version of the British language paved the way for the creation of thousands of words and expressions, took its place in the general language of English and the world lexicon. “Okay”, “teenager”, “hitchhike”, “landslide” and other words can be shown in this row. The impact of differences in the life and life of colonists in the United States and Great Britain on this language was not significant either. The role of Nature, Climate, Environment and lifestyle should also be appreciated here. There is no officially confirmed language accent in the United States. However, most speakers of national media and, first of all, the CNN channel use the dialect “general American accent”. Here, the main accent of “mid Pppemestern” has been guided. It should also be noted that this accent is inherent in a very small part of the U.S. population, especially in Nebraska, Iowa, and Illinois. But now all Americans easily understand and speak about it. As for the current state of the American version of the British language, we can say that there are some hypotheses in this area. A number of researchers perceive it as an independent language, others-as an English variant. The founder of American spelling, American and British lexicographer, linguist Noah Pondebster treats him as an independent language. He also tried to justify this in his work “the American Dictionary of English” written in 1828 [4]. This position was expressed by a Scottish-born English philologist, one of the authors of the “American English Dictionary”Sir Alexander Craigie, American linguist Raven ioor McDavid Jr. and others also confirm [5]. The second is the American linguist Leonard Bloomfield, one of the creators of the descriptive direction of structural linguistics, and other American linguists Edward Sapir and Charles Francis Hockett. There is also another group of “third parties” that accept American English as a regional dialect [5, 6]. A number of researchers [2] have shown that the accent or dialect in the US on the person contains significantly less data in itself than in the UK. In Great Britain, a dialect speaker is viewed as a person with a low social environment or a low education. It is difficult to perceive this reality in the US environment. That is, a person's speech in the American version of the British language makes it difficult to express his social background. On the other hand, the American version of the British language is distinguished by its faster pace [7, 8]. One of the main characteristic features of the American language array is associated with the emphasis on a number of letters and, in particular, the pronunciation of the letter “R”. Thus, in British English words like “port”, “more”, “dinner” the letter “R” is not pronounced at all. Another trend is related to the clear pronunciation of individual syllables in American English. Unlike them, the Britons “absorb”such syllables in a number of similar words [8]. Despite all these differences, an analysis of facts and theoretical knowledge shows that the emergence and formation of the American version of the British language was not an accidental and chaotic process. The reality is that the life of the colonialists had a huge impact on American English. These processes were further deepened by the growing migration trends at the later historical stage. Thus, the language of the English-speaking migrants in America has been developed due to historical conditions, adapted to the existing living environment and new life realities. On the other hand, the formation of this independent language was also reflected in the purposeful policy of the newly formed US state. Thus, the original British words were modified and acquired a fundamentally new meaning. Another point here was that the British acharism, which had long been out of use, gained a new breath and actively entered the speech circulation in the United States. Thus, the analysis shows that the American version of the British language has specific features. It was formed and developed as a result of colonization and expansion. This development is still ongoing and is one of the languages of millions of US states and people, as well as audiences of millions of people. Keywords: American English, English, linguistics, accent.

Singapore is an innovation-intensive nation. In 2020 Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong pledged to inject ‘up to S$150million’ in the country’s startup ecosystem (Channel News Asia). This paper discusses the distribution of public funds amongst startups in Singapore. It raises questions about the effectiveness of early-stage pre-seed funding and discusses medium and long-term impact of distributed funds on business performance. The paper defines startups as growth-oriented independent SMEs in pursuit Series A investments. It distinguishes between bootstrap initiatives and funding-intensive initiatives. The paper argues that there is currently a problematic emphasis on funding-intensive startups, and a potentially compromising neglect of bootstrap ventures who do typically not have equal access to smart funds, mentoring schemes and support frameworks. Equally importantly, bootstrap initiatives often escape the radar of government authorities, thus compromising the authorities’ capabilities of monitoring innovation performance across the entire spectrum.This paper uses a mixed-method approach. It draws on a series of exchanges with experts — entrepreneurs, incubator managers, investors, VC firms, as well as representatives of government funding bodies — and secondary research findings. The primary research data has been collected over a period of nine years. The preliminary hypothesis is that the support mechanisms in the context of contemporary startup ecosystems tend to be ill-directed and may compromise overall innovation performance. Various studies carried out in different parts of the world raise questions about the effectiveness of government funding for innovations that are pursued by startups and suggest that the distribution of public funds does often not benefit innovation performance generally: Following an investigation of public fund distribution in China, Hong et al. (2015) claim that ‘government grants negatively impact the overall innovation efficiency in the high-tech sector.’ Other studies (Liu and Rammer, 2016) point towards the possibility that government grants are often used as substitute for private innovation investment by established businesses who, in the absence of public funding, would be able to afford R&D financing internally, whilst early-stage startups that are in greater need of funding, often miss out on support due to requirements related to match funding or trading history. This means that early-stage startups are often disadvantaged, in particular bootstrap initiatives, whilst established SMEs and large businesses do not enhance their innovation performance through subsidies. It is also thought that there is a prioritisation of incremental innovations and a lack in funding for potentially disruptive innovations because the latter are at higher risk of economic failure. As a result, firms tend to prioritise incremental innovation, in conjunction with which it is easier to predict viability.This paper, which primarily focuses on the distribution processes used by Enterprise Singapore (ESG) and other public institutions in Singapore, raises questions about the effectiveness of public spending in relation to innovation. Bootstrap ventures that might benefit from smart-fund injections, are not captured by the Singapore authorities, and there is currently no reliable progress tracking to objectively monitor startup performance. Instead, various funding organisations including universities, VC firms, as well as the ESG, rely on each other’s recommendations in their decision-making. There is a likelihood that the selection process is subject to bias which may have compromising macro-economic implications in the long term.To summarise the above, the proposed paper raises questions about the tracking of government funded startups, and it explores the consequences of startup funding from an economic and a sociopolitical point of view. The paper discusses possibilities of reversing this trend by empowering independent startups through accessible support frameworks that operate autonomously and independent from profit-oriented incubators, VC firms and angel investment networks.Sample Sources:Hong, J. et al. (2015): Government Grants, Private R&D Funding and Innovation Efficiency in Transition Economy, Abingdon-on-Thames, UK: RoutledgeLiu, R., Rammer, C. (2016): The Contribution of Different Public Innovation Funding Programs to SMEs’ Export Performance, ZEW Discussion PapersSoetanto, D. P., van Geenhuizen, M. (2015): Getting the right balance: University networks’ influence on spin-offs’ attraction of funding for innovation, in: Technovation, Volumes 36–37, February–March 2015, Pages 26-38, Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier Teece, D. (2009): Business Models, Business Strategy and Innovation, Amsterdam, Netherlands: Elsevier

Abstract Human’s motion and its mechanisms had become interesting in the last years, where the medecine’s field search for rehabilitation methods for handicapped persons. Other fields, like sport sciences, professional or military world, search to distinguish profiles and ways to train them with specific purposes. Besides, recent findings in neuroscience try to describe these mechanisms from an organic point of view. Until now, different researchs had given a model about control motor that describes how the union between the senses’s information allows adaptable movements. One of this sense is the proprioception, the sense which has a quite big factor in the orientation and position of the body, its members and joints. For this reason, research for new strategies to explore proprioception and improve the theories of human motion could be done by three different vias. At first, the sense is analysed in a case-study where three groups of persons are compared in a controlled enviroment with three experimental tasks. The subjects belong to each group by the kind of sport they do: sedentary, normal sportsmen (e.g. athletics, swimming) and martial sportmen (e.g. karate, judo). They are compared thinking about the following hypothesis: “Martial Sportmen have a better proprioception than of the other groups’s subjects: It could be due to the type of exercises they do in their sports as empirically, a contact sportsman shows significantly superior motor skills to the members of the other two groups. The second via are records from encephalogram (EEG) while the experimental tasks are doing. These records are analised a posteriori with a set of processing algorithms to extract characteristics about brain’s activity of the proprioception and motion control. Finally , the study tries to integrate graphic tools to make easy to understand final scientific results which allow us to explore the brain activity of the subjects through easy interfaces (e.g. space-time events, activity intensity, connectivity, specific neural netwoks or anormal activity). In the future, this application could be a complement to assist doctors, researchers, sports center specialists and anyone who must improve the health and movements of handicapped persons. Keywords: proprioception, EEG, assesment, rehabilitation.References: Röijezon, U., Clark, N.C., Treleaven, J. (2015). Proprioception in musculoskeletal rehabilitation. Part 1: Basic science and principles of assessment and clinical interventions. ManualTher.10.1016/j.math.2015.01.008. Röijezon, U., Clark, N.C., Treleaven, J. (2015). Proprioception in musculoskeletal rehabilitation. Part 2: Clinical assessment and intervention. Manual Ther.10.1016/j.math.2015.01.009. 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The British Academy was asked by the Government Office for Science to produce an independent review on the long-term societal impacts of COVID-19. This report outlines the evidence across a range of areas, building upon a series of expert reviews, engagement, synthesis and analysis across the research community in the Social Sciences, Humanities and the Arts (SHAPE). It is accompanied by a separate report, Shaping the COVID decade, which considers how policymakers might respond. History shows that pandemics and other crises can be catalysts to rebuild society in new ways, but that this requires vision and interconnectivity between policymakers at local, regional and national levels. With the advent of vaccines and the imminent ending of lockdowns, we might think that the impact of COVID-19 is coming to an end. This would be wrong. We are in a COVID decade: the social, economic and cultural effects of the pandemic will cast a long shadow into the future – perhaps longer than a decade – and the sooner we begin to understand, the better placed we will be to address them. There are of course many impacts which flowed from lockdowns, including not being able to see family and friends, travel or take part in leisure activities. These should ease quickly as lockdown comes to an end. But there are a set of deeper impacts on health and wellbeing, communities and cohesion, and skills, employment and the economy which will have profound effects upon the UK for many years to come. In sum, the pandemic has exacerbated existing inequalities and differences and created new ones, as well as exposing critical societal needs and strengths. These can emerge differently across places, and along different time courses, for individuals, communities, regions, nations and the UK as a whole. We organised the evidence into three areas of societal effect. As we gathered evidence in these three areas, we continually assessed it according to five cross-cutting themes – governance, inequalities, cohesion, trust and sustainability – which the reader will find reflected across the chapters. Throughout the process of collating and assessing the evidence, the dimensions of place (physical and social context, locality), scale (individual, community, regional, national) and time (past, present, future; short, medium and longer term) played a significant role in assessing the nature of the societal impacts and how they might play out, altering their long-term effects.